CeBIT Open Source Project Lounge -- KOffice

KOffice - the open office software from KDE

KOffice is among the 15 projects presenting their work to CeBIT visitors 2010, offering a free office suite.

The K shows the KDE origin of the free office suite.

In a nutshell: describe your project in one or two sentences.

KOffice is a comprehensive, cross-platform and flexible, yet lightweight and fast, office suite from the KDE community comprising
both productivity applications and creativity applications. It runs among others on Linux, Windows, Mac OS X and Nokia Maemo and isinteroperable with both OpenOffice.org and MS Office.

When did the project begin?

April 1998

How many active members does the project have?

In 2009, 80-90 people contributed to the project. Of those, 76 contributed directly by committing code. If we include translators anddocumentors, then the project has over 100 contributors.

Why was the project created?

To fill the void of a free office suite. The project was created long before OpenOffice.org was free.

Why should a CeBIT visitor come to your booth?

Today, KOffice is the only free office suite that is both lightweight enough and flexible enough to run on mobile devices and with a native
UI. It is also the fastest developing of the free office suites. If you want to create a customized or branded office suite, then KOfficeis the platform to build upon.

Who do you make your software for?

Users on all platforms who want an easy to use office suite that work well with open document standards.

Where do you see your biggest current challenges?

To create a full implementation of the OpenDocument standard to allow seamless interoperability with MS Office and OpenOffice.org.

If you could hire a full-time project developer now, what problem should he or she be ready to solve?

There are several full-time project developers already, many of them from KO GmbH who specializes in services around the OpenDocumentFormat and KOffice.

Since Nokia's takeover of Trolltech and the increased presence of Qt, the KOffice suite has been gaining prominence on mobile devices. Developers have been working on new import opportunities of Microsoft Office formats.